"Discover Me and You'll Discover Love": Could it have been a hit?

[RanRan79]

I couldn't agree more, RanRan. When I first got that previously-unreleased track, I had high expectations and couldn't wait to hear it. But once it started playing, I couldn't wait for it to end. Way too fast, far too cutesy, and the overlapping back-up vocals are horrible! It doesn't even sound like Motown. If Motown had released an album titled "How To Duplicate The Motown Sound", this version of "My Guy" would be the track titled, "Don't Let This Happen To You"!!! [[If I've offended anyone here who loves this version, I apologize. I just had to agree with RanRan on this one. That's how strongly I dislike it -- to the point of embarrassment!)

What surprises me most is that the production is a Smokey production. I would've expected him to take the Supremes into the studio and try to "out do" what he had done with Mary Wells on the song. Maybe not "out do" [[that song is classic) but perhaps take it up a notch from what he did in 1964 to what was current in 1966. That entire arrangement is horrible. Flo and Mary sound like they'd rather be somewhere else.

[johnjeb]

What surprises me most is that the production is a Smokey production. I would've expected him to take the Supremes into the studio and try to "out do" what he had done with Mary Wells on the song. Maybe not "out do" [[that song is classic) but perhaps take it up a notch from what he did in 1964 to what was current in 1966. That entire arrangement is horrible. Flo and Mary sound like they'd rather be somewhere else.

Haven't heard this is years, nor have I wanted to, so I just listened on youtube. [[Fortunately WDOLG and LC played right after which took the edge off!)

When I first heard this version of My Guy I thought that maybe it was recorded to use [[maybe lip-synch to) on a TV Show, something light and bouncy MOR, especially with those busy background vocals which is so atypical for a Supremes album track. Maybe this was going to be used for a Special Products release that never came to be. Checking DFTMC I see it was recorded in October 1966 when A' Go-Go was topping the charts. Maybe Smokey tried a light approach in the style of A' Go-Go or in the style of Heatwave and Same Old Song recorded in June 1966 and used on HDH in 1967.

[144man]

The strongest song is I'M SO GLAD [[ I HAVE SOMEBODY LIKE YOU AROUND). Criminally underrated production team. Love George Gordy and Lawrence Brown, Allen Story and Anna Gordy Gaye. That team also gave us the unreleased SAME SAME O on the Four Tops. Similar horn type STAX sound.

I'm So Glad [[to find out that I'm not the only one who thinks the Gordy/Story/Brown team are criminally underrated).

[kenneth]

Haven't heard this is years, nor have I wanted to, so I just listened on youtube. [[Fortunately WDOLG and LC played right after which took the edge off!)

When I first heard this version of My Guy I thought that maybe it was recorded to use [[maybe lip-synch to) on a TV Show, something light and bouncy MOR, especially with those busy background vocals which is so atypical for a Supremes album track. Maybe this was going to be used for a Special Products release that never came to be. Checking DFTMC I see it was recorded in October 1966 when A' Go-Go was topping the charts. Maybe Smokey tried a light approach in the style of A' Go-Go or in the style of Heatwave and Same Old Song recorded in June 1966 and used on HDH in 1967.

Diane's voice seemed to always be recorded in a way which made it sound thin and without much resonance during the last year or two with the Supremes. This seems very apparent in this version of "My Guy," which I don't think I've listened to in a very long time. Ross' vocal qualities seem to have been under utilized in many songs around this time, and although she's never had a big voice, to me the thin quality of her voice was very apparent around this time in other songs such as "Take Me Where You Go" and much of the tracks on the last two DRATS albums.

In the "My Guy, My Girl" medley that the girls did later with the Temptations, the arrangement is much better and Diane's vocals much richer, in my opinion.

[Philles/Motown Gary]

144man and Fourtopsbiggestfan - I, too, love George Gordy's compositions with Story and Brown, as well as his productions. George was a hell of a nice guy, too. When I took my tour of Motown's Donovan building back in October '71, George took me into his office and played me his newly-recorded production of Martha's "In And Out Of My Life" which Quality Control hadn't even heard yet. Of course, I loved it! And I've since discovered that I love everything else that he produced and wrote with Story/Brown. You're right -- Gordy/Story/Brown were sorely under-rated.

[sup_fan]

Diane's voice seemed to always be recorded in a way which made it sound thin and without much resonance during the last year or two with the Supremes. This seems very apparent in this version of "My Guy," which I don't think I've listened to in a very long time. Ross' vocal qualities seem to have been under utilized in many songs around this time, and although she's never had a big voice, to me the thin quality of her voice was very apparent around this time in other songs such as "Take Me Where You Go" and much of the tracks on the last two DRATS albums.

In the "My Guy, My Girl" medley that the girls did later with the Temptations, the arrangement is much better and Diane's vocals much richer, in my opinion.

i wonder if this is more a result of overuse and just being plain tired. At this point she alone was doing the recording - M and C are barely on any tracks. Gordy was also having her explore tons of material with various producers to keep testing out sounds and concepts. then there were all of the interviews, rehearsals, preparing for TCB and GIT, endless tv show appearances, stage shows, etc, etc, etc. Plus all of the frustrations of dealing with post-Florence stress, intergroup dynamics, the fact that she had been pretty much ostracized from the rest of the motown "family."